Amid pomp and pageantry, and riding a wave of popularity, Princess Leonor of Asturias took a formal step closer to the throne of Spain, pledging loyalty to the constitution on her 18th birthday.
With “Leonormania” on show, the princess was conveyed through cheering crowds to parliament in Madrid in a Rolls-Royce Phantom IV.
Banners with her photograph decorated lampposts and official buildings were festooned with bunting. The ceremony was shown on several giant screens across the city.
The princess, who went to school in Wales and began three years of military training in August, vowed to uphold the law, respect the rights of citizens and regions and be faithful to the king. Her mother, Queen Letizia, and her younger sister, Princess Sofía, joined King Felipe as Leonor took the oath before a joint session of both houses of parliament.
After swearing allegiance on the same copy of the constitution on which her father pledged his loyalty in 1986, loud applause echoed in parliament for several minutes and the king embraced his daughter.
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Officially, the ceremony means Leonor will become queen after Felipe and automatically becomes head of state in the event of the monarch’s absence. She received a 19-gun artillery salute that was followed by a 21-gun salute for her father.
Afterwards Leonor addressed guests at the royal palace, saying: “I ask you to place your trust in me, just as I have all my confidence placed in the future of our nation.”
Felipe, who is credited with bringing stability to the monarchy after a series of scandals surrounding his father, the exiled former king Juan Carlos, said: “Dear Leonor, you will not be alone on your path.”
The ceremony took place amid political tension as Pedro Sánchez, the socialist caretaker prime minister, negotiates to win the backing of Carles Puigdemont, the fugitive Catalan separatist, to hold on to power after an inconclusive election in July. In exchange he has pledged an amnesty for Puigdemont and hundreds of others involved in a failed illegal independence vote in 2017. Protests against the amnesty have been held by right-wing parties.
Three ministers from Sánchez’s far-left coalition partners refused to attend Leonor’s ceremony, calling for a return to republicanism. More than 50 MPs allied to the Socialist leader, many of them from Basque, Catalan and Galician parties, boycotted the event.
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Juan Carlos, who left Spain in 2020 amid investigations into alleged financial irregularities, which have now been shelved, did not attend the ceremony. But he and the former queen, Sofía, his estranged wife, were expected to attend a private party in the evening at the El Pardo palace, the first formal royal family gathering he will have attended since going into exile.
In the lead up to her 18th birthday, the royal household has seized the moment, releasing a series of previously unseen photographs of the princess.
The images cover the princess’s life, from a seven-day-old baby swaddled in silk and lace to her entrance into an army academy in August, where she is spending the first of her three years of military training and is known as Cadet Borbón.
The princess’s prestige has grown rapidly since she finished her International Baccalaureate at Atlantic College in the Vale of Glamorgan in May, her graduation from which is among the new photographs. She scored her latest success last week at an annual awards ceremony which she presided over as the Princess of Asturias, her title as heiress to the throne.
She said in a speech at the event that her military training had allowed her to work “with people who have chosen a life of service with great demands and personal sacrifices”. She added: “I understand very well and am aware of what my duty is and what my responsibilities entail.”
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The new photographs include holiday pictures of Leonor with her parents, King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia, and Sofia, her sister, who is now studying at her former school in Wales. Several photographs highlight her close relationship with her father. Others show a tousle-haired toddler, another as a child sitting in the pilot’s seat of a fighter jet.
A column published last week in the left-leaning newspaper El País credited Felipe for steadying the monarchy and reluctantly conceded that the princess was positive news. It said: “Leonor is a hopeful blank page on which she has the opportunity to write a good story. And, since something is going well in the midst of the polarisation that grips us, let’s say it.”
“There is no doubt that this is Leonor’s month and her coming of age has unleashed ‘Leonormania’,” said La Vanguardia, another newspaper.
The following previously unseen pictures were released last week to mark the princess’s coming of age
